MiL's Quilt - The Finale

T'was the night before Christmas and the air was hot and dry.

All but one of nine lay their heads, while one snuck by

to plant a special gift under the Christmas tree

with a skip, a smile and a heart full of glee. 

This quilt has taken almost a year to create

and almost didn't happen due to a little mozzie mate

Thank goodness for the kindness of many new and old quilting friends of mine

That MiL's quilt was finished just in the St. Nick of time

For even though a little elf (me) let it slip

and gave her MiL a little peek

I hope that when she sees the final gift

It will give her a heart a generous lift

A special Christmas wish is sent from my heart

to ALL of you that took part

in the finishing of this quilt

You have saved me from being full of UFO guilt!

Now the prawns are shelled and the lobster split for the Christmas BBQ

A classic Aussie spread for our visiting English rellies, we are determined to do

We'll throw in a turkey in case they have a homesick panic attack

Dessert will be a fruit topped Pavlova and a Gingerbread Outback Shack

There'll be bombies in the pool and sparkling drinks

And a snooze on the couch me thinks

I'll end my attempt at rhyming here

and send you all best wishes and some good ol' Aussie Christmas Cheer!

Merry Christmas everyone :)

Thank you to the random strangers in the park that held the quilt up!

Quilt Stats:

Size: 80" x 80"
Wren Block
Nest Block
Knitting Block
Ballroom Dancing and Poppy block
Bookshelf Block
Tea Cup Block
Union Jack Block
Cross stitch "B" Block
Apple Pie Block
Long Arm Quilted by Marg from The Cove Quilting in Adross
Border Fabric
Binding Fabric - Flea Market Fancy

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Heart Cushion

Having MsMidge's cushion blog hop top of mind (loved all of it!) - I knew exactly what to make when a last minute 3 year old's birthday gift was in order.  

I couldn't face another day in the Christmas crushed shopping centres so I dusted off my sewing machine, cleared the kitchen table and got to work.

This little baby took me 2 hours to sew up and to be honest the tracing and cutting of the hot pink felt hearts took the most time.

It's a 19" square cushion, with a basic envelope back.  I made it from some spotlight fabric and felt that I've had sitting around for a while.

This cushion was my inspiration - I just adjusted it slightly to suit a 3 year old girl :)

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

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Farmers Wife WIP

The Farmer's Daughter has been especially busy this last week ...

Must take pictures straight ...

Farmer's Daughter - Block 32

Tending to the Duck and Ducklings ...

Duck and Ducklings - Block 28

and helping the Cats catch the Mice!

Cats and Mice - Block 17

Might try one in the 60's region next

Meanwhile, I've started hand binding MiL's quilt - just a mere 304" ... sheesh!

IG photo - @sewgiving

... no wonder so many of you prefer machine binding!

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Work In Progress

Yes!  It's Work in Progress Wednesday peeps and do I have some progress for you!!

The much blogged about MiL quilt top and back are finished AND are now being happily basted and quilted by the trusted hands of my favourite long arm quilter - hooray!!!  

Good news is my MiL loves it - massive exhale of air - Here's a few pics for you ...

With 774 squares there had to be an obligatory stained glass shot

I did have the odd hiccup along the way!

Indoor shot

Look at those colours outdoors!

MiL has landed on our fine shores and is currently sipping a cup of tea whilst I whip up this post.  That's right, I'm a hopeless secret keeper when it comes to gifts and just had to show her the quilt top as soon as she landed (I get that from my mum - another hopeless secret gift giver - seriously folks, Secret Santa is wasted on us!)

In other news ... I have hand pieced two other Farmers Wife quilt blocks ... I give you Block 91 "Strawberry Basket"

and Block 10 "Bow Tie"

That's two more to add to the Progress Chart ... happy days!

See you all over at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

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Sunday Stash

Sunday, Monday, Shmunday ... what's in a day?  Well as it turns out, quite a lot!

Being on bed rest recently, I had a smidgen of time to plan, scheme and imagine ...

How I'd like to finish off MiL's quilt ..

Cushions I'd like to make ...

Summer dresses/tops/shorts to sew for my girls (lots of inspiration pinned to my Pinterest boards)

Farmer's Wife blocks to colour co-ordinate ...

Christmas Tree decorations to make ...

Wide-eyed-wonder at how a few buttons, white felt and some ribbon will make Christmas decorations - Just keep those crackers away from the white felt!!!

That should keep me busy for a while!  Well, until I check out what everyone else is stashing at Finding Fifth!

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Pedal to the Metal - WIP

It's been pedal to the metal since I found out that my favourite long arm quilter has reserved a spot to have my MiL's quilt quilted BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!!! Yes you read that right folks and I'm a tad insanely excited.

Thank goodness for the lovely ladies in my Monday night quilting class - they helped chop 2 layer cakes into 2.5" strips for me - there's no way that I could of stood and cut all of those on my own - I'm doing better but I'm not at 100% health just yet - so thank you ladies!

I sat behind my sewing machine for the first time in almost a month (yup it feels good to be back in the saddle!) and zipped those strips together in alternating light/dark sets of 4.  Then cross-cut my butt off!

So here's the rough plan (and bad example of maths at play) for the layout of MiL's quilt - nice big picture blocks padded out with 774 two inch blocks - yes 774 - sheesh!

So here's how I'm going so far ...

Top row done!

Spare mattress = design wall

Second row planned ...

Floor = design wall

I was on fire!  until this happened - doh!  

AND NO SPARE! ... hand slaps forehead repeatedly!  So the kids are going to be treated to a little shop at Spotlight to restock ... aren't they lucky?!

At the calmer, less Speedy Gonzales end of the sewing spectrum, I've managed to hand piece another Farmers's wife block.

Farmers Wife Block 31 "Evening Star"

Is it bothering me that the fussy cut centre is not centred - YES!!!!  Ah well, as someone said to me on Instagram "A man on a horse galloping wouldn't see it" or something along those lines .. too funny! (@sewgiving if you want to come along for the ride)

Hope to see you over at Freshly Pieced!

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Spider Legs - WIP

Hello my pretty ... what's your name?

"Spider Legs" you say?

Farmers Wife Block 82 "Spider Legs"

What's that?  You want to join the others in the progress chart?

Well, when you are so gorgeous .. how can I resist?

Yes ... this is my favourite block so far ... It took 37 individual pieces to create this little 6" baby!

Hope your sewing projects have put a skip in your step today!

Joining in at:

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Tragic Tuesday

I feel that if Shakespeare was a quilter the famous line would certainly have gone like this:

"To steam or not to steam; that is the question ..."

Farmer's Wife Block 83 "Spider Web"

I've never had a preference either way - you could say that it really hasn't been a controversial topic for me at all ... hang on a minute ... is this a Spider's web's floating in the breeze?  

Nope it's just my "wibbly wobbly block" - my 3 year old's words!

Is this block waving at us?

It wasn't "wibbly wobbly" until I gave it a blast of steam to make those seams sit nice and flat.  

Nice flat steam ironed seams = wonky block?

I've done the same thing with the previous Farmer's Wife blocks I've hand pieced.

Now I'm scared of steam ...

So friendly quilt folk; "To steam or not to steam?"  this is the question I'm asking you!